Alabama

Collmenter wins his fourth straight, leads BayBears past Barons

Josh Collmenter has been unbeatable since he arrived in Double-A last month.

Wednesday was no exception, as Collmenter won his fourth straight start to lead Mobile to a 3-0 win over Birmingham at Hank Aaron Stadium in the series finale.

"I've been fortunate to have a handful of good starts and hopefully I can continue to ride this wave," Collmenter said. "The first couple innings, pitching out of some jams, really built my confidence."

The victory gave the BayBears the series victory and kept them within striking distance of first place in the Southern League's South Division.

Kory Casto, already with two game-winning RBIs this series, smashed a home run over the fence in right-center field to set the tone for the offense.

Mobile added a pair of runs in the third on an RBI single by Konrad Schmidt and a RBI groundout by Bryan Byrne.

That was more than enough for Collmenter, who has allowed just two runs in 29Ð innings while with the BayBears. Against the Barons on Wednesday, he gave up five hits in 8Ð innings along with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Collmenter got in jams in both the first and second innings, with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, but escaped unscathed.

"Tremendous job right out of the gate," Mobile manager Rico Brogna said. "He was in a difficult situation and he was able to pitch himself out of it. He's very poised and he has mature mound presence. It was a great job there, and then he was real efficient in the middle innings."

Birmingham starter Jacob Rasner (1-3) allowed three runs on three hits in three innings for the loss.

Mobile hits the road to start a five-game series at first-place Jacksonville today at 6:05 p.m. with Pat McAnaney (2-4) getting the start against the Suns' Elih Villanueva (6-3). It will be the first meeting between the teams this season.

Suns third baseman Matt Dominguez is the No. 4 prospect in the Florida Marlins' farm system, according to Baseball America, and is hitting .231 with six home runs and 27 RBIs. Left-handed pitcher Daniel Jennings is the No. 13 prospect for the Marlins, and is 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in 20 relief appearances.

One player the BayBears won't have to face is outfielder Mike Stanton, who was recently called up by the Marlins. Stanton, the top prospect in the Florida system, was hitting .311 with a league-high 21 home runs and 52 RBIs.